The Show Must Go On
by FlowerofAdversity
Summary: Code Lyoko: Reincarnated Earth timeline. The drama club puts on a presentation of Rumplestiltskin, but XANA is up to his old tricks...


Note: Code Lyoko fanfic, alternate timeline, reincarnated world. Inspired by the episode in which the children are preforming Rumplestilkskin and Herve accidentally breaks Susanne's heirloom spinning wheel. Needless to say, Susanne becomes rather irate, but Jim is able to calm her with a soft touch, a gentle kiss and tender words. Besides this, it seems XANA is up to his old tricks...

Chapter 1—Choosing the Cast

Only just recently had Kadic been abuzz with the news that a play was to be chosen. The story was "Rumplestilkskin", and not the original Grimm version. Though the students could probably handle the original tale, it had been edited for content and open casting calls were being made. Fortunately, midterms and finals were months away and the new school year had only just begun.

Susanne, who was joyfully expecting the arrival of her daughter, Emily, was looking forward to delivering in a few more months after the play was to be premiered. Both events were incredibly exciting to her since she was contributing a little something of her own to the play. Her family's heirloom spinning wheel would be taking center stage, and despite it's ancient qualities, it still had the ability to spin flawlessly and would add some authenticity to the production. Thus far, most of the props had been supplied by the drama club. This wasn't the least of the thespians' worries though, because the director of Drama had been said to be quite a perfectionist, but with the cast slowly coming together, perhaps Mrs. Rozenheim would feel more confident in the shining crew as soon as they made it perfectly clear it was their duty to entertain and to educate through culture from the past.

The play itself was being performed in celebration of the Drama Club's sudden increase in funds. It was thanks to Mrs. Lydia Rozenheim, who had developed the idea of merchandising. Nobody else except the children were aware of the "souvenier" program Lydia had created. It had been going great guns since its initial conception, and some of her creativity was about to go a long, long way in the play in the small details that the more astute students and faculity would enjoy.

Principal Delmas had gone to open casting calls, never expecting that he would be thrown into the role of one of the most important characters. He had been chosen to play the miller, who was also the protagonist's father. Lydia's husband, Jacob "Jake" Rozenheim, was a leading designer in costumes and other fashion; he had designed Sissi's costume for the play - a Medieval-style dress. The dress was magenta-colored and had long sleeves. The hem of the dress trailed to above Sissi's ankles to show her feet. That way, she wouldn't fall down and hurt herself as she walked onstage. Other period-style costumes were being designed, functional, colorful and flexable, for the other cast members as well. Ulrich was cast as the evil king, Herve as Rumplestilkskin, Nicholas as a jester, and a few other lesser known, minor characters. Even the Rozenheim children, Ziva and Zachary were in the chorus, as peasants, but they had been in plenty of shows as leads and would rather give the limelight to someone else more deserving.

Rehearsals had only begun and the crew was learning how to act in character. The stage crew probably worked among the hardest to make sure all their spots were exact and that they made their changes on cue, and without being heard or noticed. Jacob made sure they wore no-skid socks so they would be stealthy as they moved. As hoped, the socks had their usefulness and worked like a charm. More costumes had to be measured and sewn, especially by Jacob himself, who adored the kids as his own and was often seen as a father figure, and Lydia loved kids too, even though she was a tad bit obsessive about her craft being "perfect". She did allow some flexibility and "helpers" for lines if the students needed them. But she and Jake were impressed with how well Rumplestilkskin was going. The only worry they had was with Herve, who seemed more concerned with his first kiss with Sissi than playing the part. Lydia let the kid off easy. She wasn't going to yell, but she was firm in her way in redirecting him.

Chapter 2—Enter the Villain

From Lyoko, XANA sat upon his throne, fingers interlaced underneath his strong chin. Gazing upon his skrithing orb, he sinisterly watched the Warriors going about daily duties. His minions, Hypnotica and Revenia were watching alongside him, wondering if they could contribue to his latest ominous plot.

"Patience please, you two. You will have your chance to shine soon enough. Night is soon falling, and that will be your cue, Hypnotica.", XANA said with a sardonic sneer. Hypnotica grinned wolfishly. She was almost jumping at the chance to leave Lyoko and start draining "honey energy". It was thus named since children and adults alike produced this type of aura that provided the monsters their livlihood, and XANA could absorb this essense as well. It was similar to ideya, a dream energy that differed according to a child's personality. Like ideya, which was orb-shaped, honey energy was diamond shaped but had the purity of honey, the most kosher and holy substance on the planet. From this, XANA's power would be increased 10 fold and since discovering it, he was greedily divising many methods of harvesting it as soon as he possibly could. He had already generated Hypnotica and Revenia to do some of his dirty work. And then came the inevitable lure that he had concocted. It was so deliciously malicious that it made him laugh out loud. Now came the time to make his plans come to fruition.

Back in the real world, the cast and crew of Rumplestilkskin was preparing for their first dress rehearsal.

Though a lot of the cast wasn't showing it, they were apprehensive. Herve, especially, with his kissing scene with Sissi, which had been his ultimate dream come true. He practically floated on air thinking about it, and had trouble staying focused on the true intent of the tale. He was so distracted that he had caused Susanne's spinning wheel to spin rapidly out of control. A horrendous crash was heard behind the scenes. Both the Rozenhiems squirmed, voicing a very quiet but solemn "oy" in response. Susanne was extremely upset, and Jim had duly noticed her anger.

Susanne went backstage to assess the damage and saw the wheel was almost unrecognizable. She wept bitterly, unable to yell out in anguish.

"If I find Herve, I'll...I'll...put him in detention.", she said to Jim, seething.

"Darling, it was an honest mistake. He didn't mean it.", Jim said, stroking Susanne's arm gently. Already her anger had begun to decrease. He brought her lips tenderly to his, wiping away her tears with his thumb.

"I can fix your spinning wheel you know.", Jim said, with a warm grin. By this time, the sniffling and the tears had ceased.

"Oh ? Really !", Susanne said, happily, and then she giggled girlishly as Emily kicked in her womb.

"Yes. I'm a bit of a repairman, though...I'd rather not talk about it.", Jim said. Susanne kissed his cheek and thanked him. Herve had come backstage and rather awkwardly appologized. Susanne mussed up his hair and smiled at him.

"It's alright. James has everything under control. Carry on.", Susanne said, gleefully.

The rehearsal picked up where it had left off, only without the spinning wheel. Jim was in his tool shed beginning to repair it with meticulous care, and attention to the smallest detail. After all this was his wife's wheel and it was priceless in her eyes. With Jim's craftmanship, it would be as good as new. Sadly, he couldn't watch the children perform and cheer for them to show his support. But he knew Susanne would be there to fill in for him and she was quite the inspirer.

With dress rehearsals coming along nicely and details ironing out, the cast and crew had become more believable. True, there was the occasional mistake with the lines in the script, but this was to be expected. The Rozenhiems were extremely pleased, and were looking forward to hosting a full house when opening night arrived. Surely, though, they too, were feeling slightly anxious that everything would run smoothly as all directors do, but they trusted their little thespians to do a stupendous job.

It was only a few weeks before opening night and fortunately, Susanne's spinning wheel had been completely restored. This time, Herve would be more cautious with the mechanism of the wheel itself, but he was glad that Susanne had forgiven him. Even Jim had come to him late one night to tell him himself that she had only been rattled, not really upset. He was looking forward to seeing Jim and Susanne in the audience as well as his other friends, and to make matters even better...he got to _kiss_ Sissi. Could matters become anymore sublime ?

Only a few days before opening night, XANA had decided to send his right-hand harpies to the actual world and begin harvesting honey energy. The two were like siblings in how they dealt with each other, arguing somewhat along the way, but they worked exceptionally well as a team. They had descended upon Kadic to find all the children and adults peacefully sleeping, vulnerable to their silent attack.

Upon seeing the children at first, Revenia was reluctant to harvest any energy from the children.

"I...can't just take something that they need to function, Hypnotica.", she said, her hand shaking before opening the portal in her palm.

"_We_ need some of this energy to survive, Revenia. We can't just leave empty handed. Don't forget our purpose. Besides, master will reward us.", Hypnotica admonised her. Revenia knew that the reward was a portion of the diamonds to be divided between the two of them. Without any further ado, the two began to suck energy from the children and adults in each dormitory and disappeared as though they had never been there. But by the next day, everyone in Kadic had felt the affects of what was the equivalent of being sleep deprived.

Chapter 3—Principal Delmas' Concern

"Turn to page 208 in your textbooks, please.", Susanne began, yawning. She was enthusiastic about her lesson as she had usually been.

"Mrs. Morales, we've already read this text.", Jeramie noted, sleepily.

"Oh ? Forgive me. I must be getting abscent minded recently.", she said, stretching her arms behind her head. She had bags under her eyes and the usual brown tint they bore had all but dimmed. Before anyone knew it, she had fallen asleep at her desk, which wasn't like her at all.

"Mrs. Morales, are you ok ?", Odd questioned, becoming worried.

"She's not waking up. This is scary !", Sissi agreed. Even gently rocking Susanne back and forth to rouse her had no effect. The Principal, who had heard the classroom in disarray had inquired as to what was going on. It seemed that he had been affected by sleep deprevation as well, but not so much as everyone else had been.

"Come along. Some of you are going to bed, and some of you are going to the infirmiry. We need to figure out what's causing this.", he said, escorting some of them out. He called for Jim to come and fetch his wife, which he did, despite the fact he seemed enervated.

The warriors, which had been housed in the infirmary, were beginning to suspect XANA, but hadn't seen any trace or evidence that XANA had been involved.

"Do you suppose he has some new monsters he sent, perhaps to perform some mission ?", Yumi said, pondering.

"It's likely.", Ulrich said, yawning. Yolande reminded the children they should be sleeping but fell asleep on a cot quite unexpectedly. Something had to be done, but with the Warriors in the state they were in, fighting was most certainly out of the question.

From over their ear-pieces the two ladies could hear the voice of their Master clear as a bell. They had been waiting for another chance to strike since their last trip to Earth.

"Excellent, just excellent! My plan is working perfectly! Hypnotica, Revenia, listen to me! I want you to go into the infirmiry and put those children to sleep. All their sweet energy must be harvested!", XANA said.

The two girls teleported into the infirmiry. "Didn't you hear what the school nurse said, little ones? It's time for you to go sleepy-bye now.", Hypnotica said. The already heavy-eyed students began to fall asleep one by one, and Revenia's lullaby secured them into their beds. Jeramie, who was caught in the spell of Hypnotica's swinging watch had felt his stamina fleeing, but with what energy he had left, he called Jim telepathically.

"Jim. Jim ! Wake up !", Jeramie's voice said.

"Great, I'm hearing voices again.", Jim thought to himself.

"It's me, Jeramie ! You and Susanne are the only ones that can help us. Go to the abandoned factory and teleport to Lyoko from there. We're counting on you...", Jeramie said, and his voice had slipped away.

Jim jolted up and tenderly awakened Susanne.

"Jim, it's the middle of the night, what seems to be the matter ?", she inquired, rubbing the grit from her eyes.

"The children need us. No time to explain right now.", Jim responded, seriously and took her by the hand to the abandoned factory.

Despite the fact that the two mentors were vested in pajamas, they were battle-ready. By the time they had come to the factory, the computer had already engaged itself. An sage, but somehow oddly familiar voice

that emenated from the glowing screen.

"Before you two do anything, I can assist you.", the wise masculine tone mentioned. The couple had their interest piqued at this time.

"I'm all ears, Sir.", Jim piped up.

"First, I am Franz Hopper. I can't divulge my background story at this time, but I can give you instruction on how to save your precious friends. At this moment, their energy is being taken from them. I am granting you both a means of garnering some of it back. This code I am entering into Lyoko will enable you to catch the energy as it were in a mesh nothing can destroy. Sort of like butterfly capturing.", Franz said with an added chuckle to lighten the mood. The two comprehended his instruction and made their transfer, and all the while the children were losing their lifeforce. An extremely concerned Principal Delmas had since fallen under the spells of XANA's cronies, and even _he_ didn't have the power to stop them.

Chapter 4—Showdown in Lyoko

While Jim and Susanne were fighting in Lyoko, matters didn't look very promising for the faculty and students at Kadic. While everyone was fast asleep, many of the children were experiencing nightmares. Aelita had been weeping over the disappearance of her father, Franz. Nicholas was lost in a fog, unable to find his way back home and nearly crippled with fear. Jeramie had an awful nightmare in which he could not be understood by anyone and the language he spoke wasn't even English. Herve saw himself on stage as his character, Rumplestilkskin, being mocked and called names. Sissi was facing the fear of being unpopular and not having any friends. Odd pictured himself giving a speech, but in his underware. Of all of them, oddly enough, Yumi was having the worst nightmare imaginable. Frantically she was being chased by someone, or something. Desperately trying to escape, she cried out for Ulrich, her white knight. Ulrich was nowhere to be found, however. Ulrich was experiencing a nightmare of his own, in which he was falling down a bottomless pit, but no scream would emenate from his mouth. Yumi didn't know this, and continued yelling for him. Suddenly, she tripped and found herself cornered by faceless, grotesque phantasms with acid dripping from their fangs. They had her cornered. She could only think of one other name to yell, and it was the name of her protector.

"JIM ! Please, help me !", Yumi pleaded with every ounce of her being. Jim, having heard this, had been able to harvest some of the honey energy back from the possession of XANA's processing device. The machine itself was black, gnarly and twisted. It looked very much like a bramble or thorn bush, but each rose held the honey energy of one particular child, and each rose took upon the tint of that child's personality.

It was part machine, part freak of nature. The roses themselves were dark, and unnatural, not at all pleasing to the eye, but in XANA's view they were manna from heaven.

Jim could hear the call of Yumi as well as the others, and felt helpless to do anything. Susanne wanted to assist him, but was too busy fighting off monsters and regathering energy. Suddenly, there had been a slowing of time and then Jim heard a voice.

"I have been able to hack the core of Lyoko, but I can only hold off this process for a certain amount of time.", Franz said, solemnly.

"How long, I need specifics.", Jim said, following the sound of Franz's voice until he came to an exit point.

"I don't know, just go !", Franz said, a bit sternly. Nodding, Jim had followed Franz's instruction. Susanne, who had been frozen in time, hadn't even seen him leave.

Jim had been able to transport himself to Kadic and saw two of XANA's right hand monsters had been stopped momentarily. Revenia had a look of regret, and Jim whispered a sugguestion to her. He wasn't certain whether his words would help turn her around, but that was all he could do other than singing his intentions to the captive audience.

_Don't give up_

_It's just the weight of the world_

_When your heart's heavy_

_I will lift it for you _

_Don't give up _

_Because you want to be heard_

_If silence keep you _

_I will break it for you... _

It was the least he could do for the children to build a mental barrier with what strength they had left. He had a warning from Franz before he could return, and it was even better news. Franz had discovered the sequence of numbers that would disable the dream energy container. It would take some time for him to manipulate the data, but Susanne and Jim were keeping XANA occupied long enough for the sequence to be enacted.

Immediately, there had been a shift. The structure of the brambles had begun to shake and crumble until it turned into dust.

"No...No, no, no, no, NO !", XANA yelled in fury. He wondered what was happening on Earth but couldn't worry about his right hand women at this time. Susanne and Jim had already disappeared with the energy that rightfully belonged to "their children". He whistled to have his minions return and comfort him in his time of loss. Revenia didn't want to admit she had left the children alone. If she was found out, she would be destroyed, but Hypnotica hadn't noticed, so she was safe...for now. At the time, XANA had been defeated, and his minions stayed by his side to stroke his ego. The battle had been won, and life could return to normal.

Chapter 5—Opening Night

The theatre was abundant with excitement as they waited for the play to begin. Mr. And Mrs. Rozenhiem were motivating their little thespians to go out there and 'knock 'em dead', figuratively. They were told to break a leg, and give it all they had. Ziva and Zachary took their places behind the stage until the chorale's part had come, but now it was time for the main characters to shine.

To be honest, Herve was probably the most nervous of all the adolescents. His palms were soaked with sweat, and he wiped them off on his pants before going out to deliver his lines. Everything was running along smoothly and the play had been performed without a hitch before a break was given. Herve's big scene when he would finally have a chance to kiss Sissi was coming up, though and he wanted to make himself more presentable for her. He ate about 10 breath mints, made certain he smelled good, slicked back his hair with old-fashioned brilliantine.

Herve had become slightly overconfident with his next scene and almost forgot his cue. Lydia, who was behind the scenes, whispered to him...

"Go on, kid. It's your time !", she said, patting him on the back. Herve swallowed hard, remembering his lines and stayed in character. Expecting perhaps a soft, gentle kiss, Herve was almost knocked out of his shoes by the passionate kiss Sissi gave him. He had a momentary lapse in focus, being so dazed but overcame it beautifully. Granted, he was cool and calm and holding the character of Rumplestilkskin well, yet afterwards, he was bounding behind the scenes, exclaiming,

"I kissed Sissi ! I kissed Sissi ! Wowee !"

There was thunderous applause echoing through the theatre, the cast and crew took their final bow. There was a dinner offered after the performance, which had been hosted by the Rozenhiems themselves. This had been an unexpected surprise, but everyone was looking forward to a glorious repast. Needless to say, no one was going to go home hungry.

"Everyone did such an amazing job. I'm glad I could see it.", Jim said.

"Yes, well done, guys and gals.", Susanne added, with a warm smile. She held his hand tenderly, stroking it affectionately. She had been pleased that everything had gone well and she had no doubt in her mind that it would. After all, her best students had been involved in the production, and they were serious in their craft. Even Odd had shown discipline, and she had been pleasantly surprised by that.

Lydia and Jacob were hugging and kissing every child that had been involved. The two were bursting with pride for their little thespians. The drama club had definitely outdone themselves.

"You kids are incredible ! You impressed everyone, even the Principal. To you, I raise a glass.

L'chaim !", she said, toasting her students and enjoying another sip of wine. Jacob kissed the cheek of his dazzling wife and slipped his arm around her waist. Everyone had resounded with the toast and relished the rest of the evening.

Chapter 6—Special Delivery

It had been a few days since the knockout performance of _Rumplestilkskin_ and Susanne was enjoying a quiet day off on her back porch sipping some peach iced tea. Jim was sitting with her on a porch swing, idlly twirling one of her curls around his finger and blowing in her ear to hear her occasional laughter. It made his heart swell to hear that giggle of hers.

Suddenly, Susanne felt a sharp pain.

"Ohhh, boy.", Susanne said, with slight anxiety.

"You think it's time ?", Jim said, both with eagerness and a tinge of worry.

"Yes. Yes, definitely. We need to go.", Susanne said. In a swift motion, Jim swept Susanne into his arms and carried her to the car.

"I can walk you know.", she said, chuckling.

"Yes, yes. I am aware of that, Susie, darling.", he said, placing her tenderly in the passenger's side of the car. He buckled her in, and then buckled himself in. He kissed her forehead, and patted her hand. As rapidly as he could, he turned the key into the ignition and set off to the hospital.

Luckily, the labor pains hadn't been that hard on Susanne, but they hadn't been comfortable. She had been taken to a delivery room just in time and a perfectly healthy baby girl had been brought into the world.

She was wrapped up in a soft, turqouise blanket and had begun mewling a little.

"Oh, shh, sweet Emily Marie.", Susanne said, smoothing back her daughter's perfectly curly hair. Jim's eyes were damp with tears of joy as he met his daughter for the first time.

"She's stunning like her mother.", Jim said, bringing the infant to his heart. She opened her eyes momentarily and smiled softly.

"Her eyes are glorious...", Jim said, his smile beaming. He had never felt so much joy since marrying Susanne.

"Like her handsome papa.", Susanne agreed lovingly. Jim kissed little Emily and handed her back to her mother. Without help, Susanne cradled little Lili in her arms as she got out of the hospital bed and joined her husband to return home. Before they left, they had a photo taken to commemorate the moment and returned home with their little bundle of joy. And soon, all of Kadic would know who she was.

Epilogue

Emily was shown to the faculty and students of the school several days later. She was cuter than a bug's ear and made friends very easily. She loved being held, picked up and holding people's fingers in her tiny grasp. Despite her tiny stature, and her teeny hands, she had a monster grip, much like her father.

"This is Emily Marie, everyone. Lili, say hi to all the nice people !", Jim said, who had been carrying Emily much like a mama kangaroo. Emily giggled and cooed happily as her adorers came to meet her for the first time. Susanne, who had been walking by, came up and leant over to kiss her daughter's forehead.

"Hi, sweetie ! Momma missed you.", Susanne said, blissfully. Emily reached toward her mother, gurgling joyfully. Susanne hugged her little girl, mussing up her hair. Just then there had been an awkward moment.

"Dear, I think she needs a diaper change.", Susanne said, in Jim's ear. Jim took her back and said,

"Sorry, I have a little bit of a matter to attend to. Later !", And with that he was off like a shot.

Through the years as Emily grew older, she learned how to walk and was signing long before she could communicate through words, but her vocabulary was humongous. She had been advanced to 1st grade at a young age, and it was clear where she received her intelligence. She had her mom's brain and her father's brawn. And, boy, was she ever adorable ! Everyone who met her, instantly admired and loved her. She was only a young girl, but she was already incredibly popular. She wasn't petty or self-absorbed. She simply savored every moment, every friend, every challenge, and spending time with mom and dad. Her purpose as a warrior would become clear in the future, but for the time being, she was an extraordinarily talented little girl with an astonishingly gargantuan heart.

The End


End file.
